Experts preparing the Static Detonation Chamber 2000 at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant concluded an important test in early November, preparing for its use destroying nerve agent by effectively destroying surrogate chemicals, according to preliminary results.
News
A team of specialists placed a 30,000-pound buffer tank through a roof opening in the former Blue Grass mustard-agent destruction facility March 14 to ready the building for the next chemical weapons destruction effort.
The first boxes of non-contaminated rocket motors were transported via truck from the Blue Grass Army Depot Nov. 1 and safely arrived Nov. 2 at the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama to be destroyed in a Static Detonation Chamber.
Fifty percent of all VX nerve agent in the stockpile of chemical weapons stored at the Blue Grass Army Depot has been destroyed as of Nov. 14.
The first two tanker trucks filled with hydrolysate left the Blue Grass plant Oct. 7 for destruction at an off-site treatment, storage and disposal facility in Texas.
Following a brief pause in processing while local hospitals were at capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Blue Grass plant officials coordinated with additional area hospitals and enhanced coordination with the Blue Grass Chemical Activity and the Madison County Emergency Management Agency/Kentucky Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program, or CSEPP, to ensure coverage in the event of an unlikely chemical-agent contamination or industrial accident.
Blue Grass medical staff and personnel from several other departments recently participated in a drill to test and train response to an emergency in the main plant.
Blue Grass Chemical Activity crews kicked off the VX projectile destruction process by preparing several pallets of 155mm projectiles for delivery to the Blue Grass plant in early January.
Management teams at the Pueblo and Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plants continue to work to reduce risk to the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Blue Grass supercritical water oxidation system, originally intended for treatment of a specific plant secondary waste, will no longer be used.